


A Plan In Action

by KyeAbove



Series: Collide [1]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Henry Didn't Leave The Studio, Joey Is A Dreamer Not A Devil, M/M, There Is No Ink Machine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 14:06:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13637802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KyeAbove/pseuds/KyeAbove
Summary: With the Bendy cartoons failing, Joey has thought of a big plan to save the studio. For once, he may have the right idea.





	A Plan In Action

Joey had been unusually quiet lately. At home, he hadn’t quite avoided Henry, but he’d certainly been dancing around something. When they’d arrived at the studio, Joey had raced to his so called sanctuary, and hadn’t been seen since. As such, when Henry was pulled away from his desk by an intern, and told to go to Joey’s sanctuary, he’d only assumed the worst.

“So, what do you think?” Joey asked, a wide smile on his face.

Across the table was drawings of a little angel. A smiling girl, shown interacting with Bendy and Boris, and even a few other of their lesser used characters. She started out as a simple outlined sketch, and with every sketch, she got more detailed. Where she had uncoloured hair before, she soon gained black. Pure angel at the start, but eventually gaining a small pair of devil’s horns and losing her wings. Innocent at first, she gained a devious edge to her with every drawing.

“She’s perfect. Might be a little trickier to animate, but my animators can take a challenge.” Henry complimented. "Does she have a name?” Henry then asked.

Joey’s eyes shone, and his grin was even widder now that he’d gotten Henry’s approval.

“I was thinking Alice Angel, after my middle name of Allen. To go with Bendy being named after you.”

“It’s a wonderful name.”

Henry looked at more of the drawings, and then at some of the notes Joey had written on her character. One thing caught his eyes.

“Star crossed lovers? Bendy is only a kid. What does he know about love?”

Joey pulled up one of the papers, one that showed two drawings of Alice. One more angelic, and one closer to her more defined design.

“It's a bit of an exaggeration, I admit. She’ll just be a kid like him. I was thinking her concept should be a little angel who did some wrong things, and is cast from heaven for it.” Joey pointed to a drawing of her and Bendy. “Bendy finds her, and they grow close. She wants to regain her wings and return to heaven, and Bendy wants to be happy. But a fallen angel and a devil, even a cute one like Bendy, together? That wouldn’t be allowed.”

“That makes sense. Although it might be hard to portray that with our current format.” Henry liked the concept, but consistent storytelling was rarely a thing in their cartoons.

“That’s why I want to revamp everything.”

Henry looked up sharply from the drawing he was looking at.  
  
_“What?”_

Joey sighed.

“You know as well as I do the Bendy cartoons are failing with the public.”

Henry did know. But they had kept going, because the dream could not fail like this.

“I’ve thought long and hard about this, and I came up with a plan. Hire a proper writer and make the shorts more interconnected, and bring back some of our earlier characters to round out the cast. As long as we can pull this off, even Grant thinks its wise, in the long run, and you know how he is about money.” Joey then pulled a folder out from under all the drawings. “At least consider it Henry. I couldn’t do it without you.”

Henry took the file, and when he opened it, he found more drawings. The first drawing, of Boris, was in color.

Color was promising. It was the new trend, and as long as their accountant thought it was advisable, Henry could see it working.

Boris was barely changed, but his overalls were now blue, and he had a nice cap that his ears went through. Beside the drawing, Joey had written **_Wally Franks_ **.

Henry looked up at Joey expectantly.

“Boris needs a proper voice for this to go forward. I was just wondering who to cast when I caught Wally talking to his food.” Joey laughed good humoredly. “I got him to do a few in-character quotes I thought up on the spot, and as long as you approve, I feel that he’s the best fit for Boris.”

“He’d be perfect.”

If Joey had thought this far, this might actually work.

The next drawing was of Alice, now drawn with a yellow dress. Beside her was the name  _ **Susie Campbell**_. Henry knew her. She’d only been hired two months before, but Henry could understand. Joey’s notes had mentioned Alice was a singer, and the woman did sing just like an angel.

The rest of the drawings were some of the one-off characters, and their more recurring characters. Much of the names on the sheets were their hired voice actors, but not all. Joey wanted their repairman Thomas Conner to voice Barley, and one of their shared favorite interns, Shawn Flynn, to voice Charley, and to Henry’s surprise, Grant Cohen’s name was on Edgar’s page.

“Oh, so that’s how you convinced Grant to let you do this.”

“He plans to use his ‘Joey wants more money’ voice.”

Picturing Edgar with it, Henry couldn’t see anything but a perfect match.

With still more characters to go through, Henry jumped onto the table, sitting down in a spot clear of drawings, and continued through the pile. Henry snorted and laughed when he found Sammy Lawrence’s name as one of the listed names.

Some time ago, one of Henry’s animators had been more angrier then usual at Sammy, and had mockingly drawn a little fluffy cat who’s appearance contradicted his tongue and his general sharpness, which had later been dubbed Little Beau Peep. Word got around the character was based on Sammy, and instead of bringing hell upon the animation department, he started acting intentionally more like the character, also in mockery, which turned out to be worse than hell. By the time the short Sheep Songs was finished, he’d been practically begged by the sound department to voice the character.

“How’d you do that?” Henry asked, pointing to the name beside the updated version of the character.

“He was actually ecstatic that I asked. Well, as ecstatic as Sammy Lawrence can be. I’d dare say he was fond of the character!”

It made sense that Sammy would voice the character once again. Henry could imagine a future headache where he’d have to convince Sammy _not_ to bring back the in-house classic _‘Sheep sheep sheep, it’s time for sleep!’_ song. That song hadn’t made it into the cartoon because it got creepy.

Henry continued to the bottom of the pile, and was greeted with Bendy’s smiling face.

Bendy was largely the same, but was a little closer to Henry’s original draft of the character that he’d presented to Joey all those years ago, with cute little fangs and softer ears. Otherwise his face remained unchanged. Instead of just a bow-tie, which was now a sunshine yellow, he had a black suit with white accents.

But what really got Henry was the name on the paper.

**_Henry Bendtsen_ **

At some point, Joey had gotten very close, so when Henry dropped the folder, Joey was quick to catch it, placing it on the table. Henry caught Joey’s eyes, speechless.

“I was thinking, since you’re his creator, you might want to be his voice.”

Henry returned the kindness by grabbing Joey’s tie and pulling Joey into a kiss, which Joey readily returned. They’d did this all too many times before, but this one meant so much more.

When they broke apart, Henry was in tears. Tears of happiness.

“Thank you.” Henry said, sniffling. “This is a wonderful idea. Joey, please never not be this wonderful.”

Joey pulled Henry up into a hug, knowing this was really the start of something new and great.

“I’ll try my best, Henry.”


End file.
